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Crashproofing: What is it? The Basics

Reinforcing your foamie gives you two benefits. First, it VASTLY improves the aerobatic capability of any plane by stiffening the airframe, and the wings in particular (after installation, the typical plane can handle 15G maneuvers without breaking or coming apart- you know, the ones that would mash you into goo if you were in the plane!) Second, it makes the plane HIGHLY crash resistant by increasing the structural strength of the foam an average of 300%, and some parts (like the noses) have increases of over 1000%!

I'm the designer and we sell the stuff, so you might expect me to recommend the most expensive thing, but the truth is that I do recommend the SUPERMAX Crashproofing, because it offers serious protection against impacts, while truly stiffening the airframe. Foam flexes far less when reinforced, which limits the compression and expansion of the individual cells, which keeps the foam stronger over the life of the plane. Cellular foam weakens at the bend point from cellular compression and expansion (squishing and stretching) every time it's bent, which means that foam wings flexing during flight get a little weaker every time you fly. Limiting the amounts that foam bends keeps the foam stronger longer, and limiting the unwanted flex and bend of flight surfaces makes for crisper, truer handling. Add to that the beneficial effect of having the entire airframe strengthened against impact, and you've got a great reason to get a plane with this improvement- the noses of planes with SUPERMAX Crashproofing installed have an increase of between 600% and 1000% in strength against compression, which is what happens when you drill a plane into the nose. The other parts of the plane are between 200% and 350% stronger- enough to keep planes mostly intact after crashes that would shred an unreinforced foamie. We don't have video of the Top RC FW-190 crash test online yet, but the damage from a 200 foot dive was only slightly worse than the damage to this Corsair after it's 150 foot dive (a broken prop and a separated elevator hinge).

Check out the vertical power dive into the ground of our latest Hawkfighter (V8), resulting in ZERO foam damage. It did break the plastic motor mount- but that's it! We did 4 nose in crashes of that plane before we even made the video, so that was powerdive number 5. It was about time something broke! Below is a vid of an older version of the Hawkfighter (V7), which is missing the latest additions to the Crashproofing design. It's also about 4 MPH slower than the V8, but gets about 15% more flight time on the same battery

I'll ALWAYS recommend to people to go for the extra few bucks, for the difference it makes in strength. If you scrimp all the way and get an unreinforced plane, you're simply gambling your entire payment that NOTHING will EVER go wrong- not worth the gamble to me! And putting 40MPH protection in a plane that goes 90, you're gambling every time you go over 40. And on like that.

Actually, it's possible to destroy a Dynam Hawksky in ONE 35 MPH crash. One of our Hawkskys or Hawkfighters with Supermax Crashproofing and our V8 Plastic Plates upgrade can survive more than FORTY crashes like that, although the wings generally give out sooner than the fuselages. Numbers like that kind of make the survivability of these planes sound like complete bull, though- so we usually can't can tell people the facts without making them think we're charlatans. Great Catch 22.